


never been happier to see you

by seekingsquake



Category: Naruto
Genre: Discord: Umino Hours, Fuuinjutsu Master Umino Iruka, M/M, Mission Fic, Umino Hours Winter Bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:09:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28497354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekingsquake/pseuds/seekingsquake
Summary: He replaces himself with a boulder, a log, a decaying fence post in an effort to get ahead, but no matter what he does, he can’t gain enough ground.As he flees, he tries to think. None of the seals he’s got up his sleeves will help him here, and he doesn’t have time to send up the rest of his flares. If he doesn’t come up with something quick, he’ll be buried before backup can find him. The only things he can think of are the handful of barrier seals he has in his vest, but even those...They won’t be helpful if he can’t get them down, and he can’t get them down if he can’t stop running.This isn’t how Iruka expected his day to go.All Iruka wanted to do was replace some tripwires around the border. Instead, he's running for his life.
Relationships: Shiranui Genma/Umino Iruka
Comments: 8
Kudos: 42
Collections: The Umino Hours Winter Bingo 2020





	never been happier to see you

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank-you to both [jessicamiriamdrew](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessicamiriamdrew/pseuds/jessicamiriamdrew) and [stupidbadgers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidbadgers/pseuds/stupidbadgers) for beta reading for me!

He’s never seen a jutsu like this before.

The hand signs are too fast and too many for Iruka to keep track of, and then the enemy shinobi lets out a blood-curdling shout, killing intent heavy enough to nearly bring Iruka to his knees, as he slams his hands down into the snow at his feet. And then the snow rises off the ground and forms a giant figure. It must be upwards of ten feet tall, feet, fists, and head made of ice while the rest of the body is layer upon layer of snow. It’s fast, too; faster than Iruka expects, charging at him with all the speed and ferocity of an avalanche.

All he can do is get out of the way.

Iruka shunshins across the clearing that serves as their battlefield and sets off a handful of flares at the edge of the woods before taking off at top speed and weaving between the trees. The forest is coming down behind him, around him, forced to its knees by the snow monster as it chases after him. He replaces himself with a boulder, a log, a decaying fence post in an effort to get ahead, but no matter what he does, he can’t gain enough ground.

As he flees, he tries to think. None of the seals he’s got up his sleeves will help him here, and he doesn’t have time to send up the rest of his flares. If he doesn’t come up with something quick, he’ll be buried before backup can find him. The only things he can think of are the handful of barrier seals he has in his vest, but even those...

They won’t be helpful if he can’t get them down, and he can’t get them down if he can’t stop running.

This isn’t how Iruka expected his day to go. There are chakra trip-wire traps all along Fire Country’s borders that alert the patrol station at Konoha’s gate whenever the border is crossed, and approximately where. Squad leaders can activate an alert when they pass by any wired spots, and this helps the patrol team keep track of where mission squads are, if squads are on time, and if there are any unexpected visitors into the country. Periodically, Iruka, along with a team of other trap masters, are sent out to rewire sections of the border and check that everything is still working. This task generally takes around a week, and early this morning, a six-man squad had left together but split up once they made it to the Tanzaku Quarters. 

Iruka had been trekking along the southernmost border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers, repairing chakra wires that had been damaged by the recent downfall of snow, when he came across a lone Tani shinobi boldly crossing the border. Before he could even conceal himself to better survey the situation, he had been attacked and driven deeper into Fire Country.

He’s been on the defensive for over an hour, but the Tani shinobi hadn’t pulled any tricks that Iruka couldn’t deal with until he created this snow... monster. 

With the whole wire squad fucking around and repairing the entire system, Iruka can’t use the wires to alert. All he can do is hope someone saw his flares and will follow the path of destruction until they find him and that they will be fast enough to find _ him  _ and not his grave. 

_ Damn it,  _ he thinks desperately, looking around. The forest is still collapsing under his feet, and it seems to be picking up speed. He, on the other hand, is running out of both physical stamina and chakra. He needs to do something, anything, and he needs to do it now. Up ahead, he sees a lake, and an idea comes to him. If it works, it’ll buy him some time. If it doesn’t, he’ll be drowned instead of buried.

“You’re dead either way,” Iruka grits to himself, lungs burning with exertion. He eyes the lake, sends a prayer up to his father, and then makes a last-ditch sprint for the water.

He doesn’t have a lot of chakra left, but his control has always been more notable than his reserves. He reaches the edge of the lake and keeps going, sprinting across the top of the water until he makes it to the middle. It’s a considerable body of water; he could run to the other shore if he had to, maybe, but he’d rather work from the water if he can— he doesn’t want to allow the Tani shinobi to shore up his monster with the snow from the other side of the lake if he can help it. 

The avalanche hits the beach behind Iruka and stops, then paces back and forth along the frozen sand. The Tani ninja is perched on the shoulder of the beast, watching Iruka with a sneer. They can’t cross the water as they are, which is what Iruka had hoped. Good. He gets to work.

To give himself a little more stability, Iruka turns the water under his feet into a thin layer of ice. Then he pulls all his seals out of his vest and lays them out on the ice. He’s got a ball barrier, a wind release seal, and an electricity barrier, as well as some exploding and smoke tags. The tags won’t be useful for what he’s got in mind, so he puts them away, but the others...

He’s never even thought about trying what he’s about to try, but in theory, it should work. 

On the beach, the Tani shinobi dismounts his snow monster and starts threading his chakra into the water. Iruka doesn’t know what he’s doing, but he doesn’t want to find out. He erects the ball barrier, which fully encases him as if he were a mouse in a plastic ball, and shores it up with as much chakra as he can spare. Next, he activates the electricity barrier. It springs up inside the ball barrier, putting a wall of white-hot voltage between himself and the beach.

Through the barrier under his feet, Iruka can see the water start bubbling. 

He’s drenched in sweat, and all his muscles are starting to cramp. Iruka is running out of steam and out of time.  _ Just a little more,  _ he thinks, trying to focus.

Next is the wind release seal. Once Iruka feeds it enough to activate it, he’ll be chakra drained. The shinobi from Tani looks like he’s flagging, so hopefully, it will be enough. Iruka activates the seal, and the gust of wind is brutally strong. It’s also trapped. It pushes against the ball barrier, and then the barrier begins to roll across the top of the water. Iruka grits his teeth and watches the electricity barrier, but it stays stationary inside the ball, and he lets himself feel relieved for just a second. 

Once he hits the opposite shore, giant spikes of ice are coming out of the water and trying to spear him, and he can hear the enemy screaming across the water. “You just need to drop the ball, shore up the electricity, and set off the flare simultaneously,” Iruka gasps, his vision wavering. “You can do it. You can do it.”

But he doesn’t have to. Just as he’s about to let the ball barrier drop, across the water, the Tani shinobi falls to the ground, and a man in Konoha blues rushes out from the destroyed forest to secure the enemy. From Iruka’s side of the lake, Shiranui Genma and Namiashi Raidō come out from the trees. “Stand down, Iruka-sensei,” Genma calls, voice light even though his expression is strained.

Iruka crashes. Both the barriers and the wind release drop abruptly, and Iruka falls to his knees, and then his hands. He gasps for breath, and he shakes his head, and his body feels so heavy he thinks he might sink through the earth. “Are you injured?” Raidō asks as he rolls Iruka onto his back.

Maybe he answers, maybe he doesn’t. He tries to look past the darkness at the edge of his vision to see the blue of the sky. Genma stands near them, keeping watch. “Chew,” Raidō demands as he pops a handful of pills in Iruka’s mouth. Iruka chews. Then together, Genma and Raidō pull him to his feet.

“Let’s get you home. Your squad will finish the wires,” one of them says to him. He nods, but when he tries to step forward, he staggers, and Genma catches him around the waist to keep him from falling. “Easy there. I’ll carry you the first little bit, okay? Once that chakra booster kicks in, you can walk on your own.” Then Genma hoists Iruka up onto his back, and he and Raidō hop up into the trees.

Iruka presses his face into the back of Genma’s head and squeezes his eyes shut. He wants to cry— he doesn’t know why. His fingers, shaking, clench around the fabric of Genma’s flak vest. “I’ve got you,” Genma murmurs, quiet enough that Raidō can’t hear. “You’re safe now. I've got you.” Iruka takes a deep breath, nods, counts to ten, exhales. And then he does it again, and again, and again.

“You’ve got me,” he repeats softly. Genma hmms in response, his hands tightening around Iruka’s calves, and then Iruka slumps, safe.

❅❅❅

The next time Iruka opens his eyes, he’s in a hospital bed. The fluorescent lights are too bright, so Iruka moves to shield his eyes with his hand, but his arm is too heavy. He groans, and then he hears a rustling somewhere to his right.

“Welcome back,” Genma says, dragging his chair closer to the bed. He sounds tired. “You scared me.”

“I scared me, too,” Iruka admits softly. “Am I okay?”

“Just chakra exhausted. You drained yourself almost dry. You been taking notes from Kakashi?” Though it’s meant to be a joke, it falls flat. Genma reaches out and links their hands together, squeezing Iruka’s fingers almost to the point of pain.

Iruka brings their hands up to his mouth, heavy limbs be damned, and kisses Genma’s knuckles. “I wasn’t thinking about anything while I was out there; I just knew I needed to get home. To you. And if this is the price, then so be it.” 

When Genma laughs, it sounds wet, like he’d rather cry. “You’re talking like a jonin.”

“Been dating one long enough,” Iruka whispers, his other hand coming up to brush against Genma’s cheek before dropping back to the bed. He feels Genma squeeze his hand even harder, and he wants to reassure him, but he’s exhausted even on a cellular level. His eyes close, and before he drifts off, he murmurs, “Be here when I wake up?”

He falls asleep before hearing Genma’s answer, but it’s okay because he already knows what it would have been. 

**Author's Note:**

> This fills the "snow monster" prompt on my bingo board  
> 


End file.
